MIDEAST: Potholes Open Up in Road Map

Israeli Apache helicopters over Gaza City launched missiles again Tuesday evening in a bid to kill more Hamas militants. This time the missiles missed their target, three Hamas men travelling in a car, but the explosions killed a 65-year-old bystander and injured 20 others.

/CORRECTED/IRAQ: Anything Could Be a Target

”We are partners with the Iraqi people in this exercise,” United Nations special representative for Iraq Sergio de Vierira de Mello had said just last week in his spacious and comfortable office at the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Iraq. He was talking about restoring the country to the Iraqi people and working on rebuilding it together with them.

IRAQ: Anything Could Be a Target

"We are partners with the Iraqi people in this exercise," United Nations special representative for Iraq Sergio de Vierira de Mello had said just last week in his spacious and comfortable office at the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Iraq. He was talking about restoring the country to the Iraqi people and working on rebuilding it together with them.

IRAQ: Anything Could Be a Target

”We are partners with the Iraqi people in this exercise,” United Nations special representative for Iraq Sergio de Vierira de Mello had said just last week in his spacious and comfortable office at the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Iraq. He was talking about restoring the country to the Iraqi people and working on rebuilding it together with them.

IRAQ: ‘Why I Attacked US Troops’

The shy young man in the cafeteria of a Baghdad hotel hardly seems the type to carry out attacks on U.S. soldiers. But Walid (not his real name), a student of English Literature at Baghdad University, has a story to tell that is compelling and detailed. A fellow student confirms that the account tallies with what his friend told him at the time.

MIDEAST: The Heat Spreads to Lebanon

The death of an Israeli teenager from Hezbollah artillery fire earlier this week has suddenly raised tensions on the border with Lebanon after months of relative calm. The death was the first since Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon in May 2000.

MIDEAST: Ceasefire Likely to Survive Attacks

In the first major rupture of a truce declared several weeks ago by Palestinian militants, two suicide bombers blew themselves up Tuesday in separate attacks in a town in Israel and near a settlement in the West Bank, killing two Israelis. Initial indications, though, were that the ceasefire would not unravel altogether.

MIDEAST: Dispute Rises Again over Holy Mount

Israel will allow Jews to resume visits to a Muslim- controlled religious site in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem as early as next week, a senior government minister said Monday. The announcement came just days after a thousand or so police assembled to prevent a single Israeli MP and a few dozen ultra-nationalist Jews from visiting the compound.

IRAQ: Sunnis Find the Back Seat Uncomfortable

What was Habib Ali Farhan's front door lies some 10 metres away from his house, a twisted and burnt sheet of metal. Ever since a raid by U.S. soldiers on his house in mid-July, the family of nine sleeps without a door.

DEVELOPMENT-EGYPT: Farmers Progress to the Past

Egyptian farmers are switching back to the farming practices of their ancestors to cash in on the growing world demand for organic foods.

MIDEAST: Prisoners Release Comes as Setback

It was meant to be a powerful confidence-building measure. But the release of 334 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails Aug. 6 achieved the opposite: it left Palestinians bitter over the small number who were freed and over who had been freed.

IRAQ: Attacks on Soft Targets Rising

Human remains were strewn across the broad thoroughfare in front of the Jordanian embassy in the Iraqi capital after a powerful blast Thursday. The force of the explosion, caused by a car bomb, had blown debris hundreds of metres across the street.

POLITICS-SAUDI ARABIA: New Centre to Tackle Extremism

Faced with incessant criticism from certain quarters in the United States, the Saudi government announced Monday it is creating a centre to devise a strategy to counter "extremism and terrorism".

IRAQ: People Divided over Saddam Daughters

The divisions in Iraq that emerged after the end of the war are becoming apparent also in the way people react to events surrounding the family of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

POLITICS-YEMEN: Extradition Order Raises Tensions

Tensions are rising over the decision by a Frankfurt court to extradite two Yemenis to the United States.

ECONOMY-ISRAEL: US Embrace Turning Painful

Israel's transition from a welfare state to market models closer to the U.S. economy is turning out to be a painful one.

SOCIETY-MIDEAST: Till Israelis Do Us Part

If Rawda Masarwa and her husband Khaled want to live together under the same roof like any regular married couple, they will either have to break the law or leave the country. If neither option is acceptable to them, they do have one other alternative - to separate.

MEDIA-MIDEAST: Voice of Peace to Rise Again

For 20 years, intrepid Israeli peace campaigner Abie Nathan broadcast his message of coexistence to Jewish and Arab listeners from his boat in the Mediterranean Sea, which housed his pirate Voice of Peace radio station.

POLITICS-ISRAEL: Fence Has to Overcome US Barriers

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ran into a wall when he tried to justify the creation of a security fence at a meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Washington Tuesday.

IRAQ: Human Rights Become an Alien Force

Three months after the end of major hostilities in Iraq, human rights remain a controversial issue in a country alien to the concept for at least the past three decades.

MEDIA-ISRAEL: Gov’t in Conflict with BBC

Israeli government circles are gloating rather openly over the trouble that the BBC is facing at home over its coverage of the Iraq war.